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JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM. 




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MAJOR GENERAL JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM 

BRIGADIER GENERAL CONTINENTAL ARMY 

MEMBER CONT/NENTAL CON6R5SS 

JUDGE SUPREME COURT A/. IV. TERRITORY. 

FROM PORTRAIT OWNED BY JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM NEW YO RK CITY. 



A SKETCH 

OF THE 

LIFE AND PUBLIC SERVICES 

OF 

JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM 

OF RHODE ISLAND, 

Brigadier-General of the Continental Army ; Member of the Continental 

Congress ; Jtidge U. S. Sicpreme Court, N. W. Territory ; 

Major-General Rhode Island Volunteer Militia. 



By JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM, 

Of New York City. 



BOSTON : 

DAVID CLAPP & SON, PRINTERS. 

1906. 






Reprinted from '* The Varnums of Dracutt, Mass.'' 



? 



JAMES MITCHELL VARNUM.' 

By James Mitchell Varnum.^ 

James Mitchell Varnum, eldest son of Major Samuel 
Yarnum, was born at Dracutt, Mass., on December 17th, 1748. 
After an academical education he entered Harvard College as 
a Freshman at the age of 16 years and 7 months, in the class 
of 1769, but did not continue there until graduation. There 
is no official record at the University as to the reason for his 
leaving Harvard, but inasmuch as in Quincy's history of Har- 
vard College there is mention of disturbances amongst the 
students in April, 1768, in consequence of which some were 
rusticated and others expelled, it is considered probable that 
Varnum, who had the reputation of being rather " wild " at 
college, may have been one of the number. 

He taught school in his native town of Dracutt in 1767, 
and on May 23d, 1768, entered Rhode Island College (now 
Brown University) , from which institution he graduated with 
honors in 1769, in the first class to graduate from that 
college. At the "commencement" day celebration, which was 
held in the then new Baptist meeting-house at Warren, on 
September 7th, 1769, Varnum took a prominent place in the 
exercises, taking part in " a Syllogistic Disputation in Latin," 
and also being one of two students engaged in a " Forensic 
Dispute" entitled "The Americans in their present circum- 
stances cannot consistent with good policy affect to become an 
independent state." 

Mr. Varnum " ingeniously defended the proposition by co- 
gent arguments handsomely dressed, though he was subtly, but 
delicately, opposed by Mr. William Williams, both of whom 
spoke with emphasis and propriety." Full copies of their 



arguments may be found in Dr. Guild's account of the com- 
mencement.* As a sign of the times it may be mentioned that 
at this commencement " not only the candidates, but even the 
President, were dressed in American manufactures." f 

In 1769, Mr. Yarnum, after leaving college, again taught 
school for a time at Dracutt, but even at this early date seems 
to have decided to make his future home in Rhode Island, for 
soon thereafter he entered the office of the Honorable Oliver 
Arnold, Attorney General of the colony, with whom he was a 
student at law until the latter's decease in October, 1770. 

It is probable, however, that young Yarnum's decision to 
settle in Rhode Island was chiefly due to the fact that during 
his student life at Warren he had fallen in love with a fair 
daughter of that colony, whom he married on February 2d, 
1770. Her name was Martha (usually known as Patty) Child, 
the eldest daughter of the Honorable Cromel Child of Warren, 
a member of the Rhode Island General Assembly, and one of a 
family of considerable, and even notable, distinction in those 
days. 

One of her sisters married Hon. Benjamin Bourne, after- 
wards Member of Congress and United States District and 
Circuit Judge, and another Dr. Peter Turner, a distinguished 
surgeon in the Continental Army, and a prominent citizen of 
Rhode Island. 

It may be here stated that Mr. Varnum's marriage proved to 
be a most happy one, he being represented by the chroniclers 
of that period as an " excellent and afi'ectionate husband," and 
his consort as a " high-minded lady, and one of the most 
cheerful, sociable, and best of wives." Mrs. Varnum survived 
her husband 48 years, and died at Bristol, R. I., on October 
10th, 1837, without issue, at the advanced age of 88 years. 

* " The First Commencement of Rhode Island College," by R. A. Guild, Collection R. I. 
Historical Society, vol. 7. Providence, 1885. 

t Manning and Brown University, by R. A. Guild. Gould & Lincoln, Boston, 1864. 



In 1771, Mr. Variium was admitted to the Bar, and soon 
after settled in East Greenwich, R. I., where his decided ability 
early acquired for him an extensive practice, and he travelled 
the circuit of the colony, reaping in an unusual degree for one 
so young the honors and jjecuniary rewards of his profession. 
Mr. Wilkins Updyke, in his " Memoirs of the Rhode Island 
Bar," in referring to Mr. Varnum at this period of his life, 
says : " He was deeply attached to mathematical science, and 
delighted in its pursuit; his whole life was an evidence that he 
was naturally a mathematician; his habits were those of intense 
study and boisterous relaxation. He was fond of exhibiting his 
skill in gymnastics, and ever ready to exercise in that ancient 
art with any one who would engage with him, noble or ignoble. 
Strong and active in frame, and ardently attached to such ex- 
ercises, he gave his inclination for such s[)orts the fullest range 
to a late period in his life." In another portion of his biography 
of General Varnum, and referring genei'ally to his character, 
Mr. Updyke says : " Varnum was periodically an intense stu- 
dent, and would be secluded for weeks. He possessed the rare 
power of great mental abstraction and philosophic ratiocination. 
He was master of his cases, and all the facts were well arranged 
and digested for trial. Varnum told a friend that he studied 
his cases in bed, and often had his books brought to him. 
This is the solution of the mystery which some thought was 
intuition, of instantly rising in court and arguing his cause, to 
public surprise and admiration, without any apparent previous 
preparation or consultation. He was a great admirer of Vattel 
and Montesqueiu; the latter he would almost repeat. He de- 
lighted in, and cultivated his taste for, the poets. Shakespeare, 
Young, Pope, and Addison he would recite with great readi- 
ness, and when a novel came into his hands his meals were 
suspended until it was finished." 
It was about this time, on August 15th, 1773, that Mr. Var- 



6 

num purchased for £18. the land at East Greenwich upon 
which he commenced the erection of the colonial mansion, to 
which reference will hereafter be made. Owing, however, to 
the troubled condition of the country, and the war which soon 
followed, in which Mr. Yarnum took such an interested and 
active part, his building operations were interrupted, and the 
house was not completed and occupied until some four or five 
years thereafter. 

Mr. Yarnum, very early in life, took an intense and active 
interest in military affairs, especially in view of the discontent 
in the colonies with the rule of Great Britain, and his firm con- 
viction that sooner or later war must ensue. He made a care- 
ful study not only of military tactics, but also of the art and 
science of war, which afterwards stood him in good stead. 

In October, 1774, he became a charter member and the com- 
mander, with the rank of Colonel, of the Kentish Guards, a 
uniformed militia company of infantry in East Greenwich, then 
chartered by the Rhode Island General Assembly under the 
style of the "First Independent Company of the County of 
Kent," and which subsequently gave 32 commissioned officers 
to the army of the American Revolution, amongst them Gen. 
IS'athaniel Greene, Gen. Yarnum, Col. Christopher Greene, 
Col. Crary and Maj. Whitmarsh. 

It was about this time, and in connection with the Kentish 
Guards, that there began that intimacy and devoted friendship 
that existed between Nathaniel Greene and James M. Yarnum 
until they were parted by the death of the latter. 

Mr. George Washington Greene, in his life of Maj.-Gen. 
Greene, after alluding to Greene's deep interest in the Kentish 
Guards, says: — 

" Amongst the first officers was James M. Varnum, a man of ' exalted 
talents,' whom he ' loved and esteemed,' who was to take an honorable 
place in the civil and military history of the Revolution. 



Nathaniel Greene was only a private in the company, but subsequently 
became a candidate for a lieutenancy, a candidature which met with con- 
siderable opposition. 

Greene, it seems, had had a trouble with one of his knees, which gave 
a slight limp to his gait, and in the eyes of some of the village and com- 
pany critics, this limp, although slight, was a serious blemish, unfitting 
him not merely for an officer, but even for a private. 

Greene was thunderstruck at this opposition, and took it sorely to heart. 
His friends were indignant. Varnum threatened to withdraw his name, 
and the loss of Varnum's fine person and popular eloquence would have 
been a serious blow to the half-organized company." * 

How this matter was finally settled we know not, but doubt- 
less Greene withdrew his candidacy for lieutenant, and per- 
suaded his friends to agree to it, for he remained a private in 
the company until about two years later, when, over the heads 
of all his critics, he was promoted to a Brigadier-Generalcy 
by his fellow-members of the Khode Island Legislature, an 
appointment which his subsequent brilliant career fully justified. 

An interesting letter written by Greene to his friend and 
commander, Varnum, at the time of the above-mentioned trou- 
ble, is still extant,t and is worthy of preservation in this volume, 
although it has already been printed in full in the life of Gen. 
Greene, above referred to. 

It is addressed to James M. Varnum, Esq., East Greenwich, 
and was probably written in the autumn of 1774, or early in 
1775, and reads as follows: — 

Coventry, Monday, 2 o'clock, p. m. 
Dear Sir : — 

As I am ambitious of maintaining a place in your esteem, 
and I cannot hope to do it, if I discover in my actions a little mind and a 
mean spirit I think in justice to myself I ought to acquaint you with the 
particulars of the subject upon which we conversed to-day — I was informed 

* G. W. Greene's " History of General Greene," vol. 1, page 60. 

t Original letter ia in the possession of James M. Varnum of New York. 



8 

the gentlemen of East Greenwich said I was a blemish to the company — 
I confess it is the first stroke of mortification that I ever felt from being 
considered either in private or publick life a blemish to those with whom 
I associated — hitherto I have always had the happiness to find myself re- 
spected in society in general, and my friendship courted by as respectable 
characters as any in the Government — pleased with these thoughts, and 
anxious to promote the good of my country — and ambitious of increasing 
the consequence of East Greenwich — I have exerted myself to form a mili- 
tary company there — but little did I think that the Gentlemen considered 
me in the light of an obtruder — my heart is too susceptible of pride, and 
my sentiments too delicate to wish a connexion where I am considered in 
an inferior point of light — I have always made it my study to promote the 
interest of Greenwich and to cultivate the good opinion of its inhabitants, 
that the severity of speech and the union of sentiment, coming from per- 
sons so unexpected — might wound the pride of my heart deeper than the 
force of the observation merited — God knows when I first entered this 
company I had not in contemplation any kind of office, but was fully de- 
termined not to accept any, but GrefF and others have been endeavouring 
to obtain my consent for some weeks past — I never expected that being a 
member of that company would give me any more consequence in life, 
either as private soldier or commissioned oflScer — I thought the cause of 
Liberty was in danger, and as it was attackt by a military force, it was 
necessary to cultivate a military spirit amongst the People, that should 
tyranny endeavor to make any further advances we might be prepared to 
check it in its first sallies. I considered with myself that if we never 
should be wanted in that character, it would form a pretty little society in 
our meetings, where we might relax ourselves a few hours from the various 
occupations of life — and return to our business again with more activity 
and spirit — I did not want to add any new consequence to myself from 
the distinction of that company — if I had been ambitious of promotion in 
a publick character — you yourself can witness for me I have had it in my 
power — but I always preferred the pleasures of private society to those 
of publick distinction — If 1 conceive aright of the force of the objection 
of the gentlemen of the town it was not as an officer, but as a soldier, for 
that my halting was a blemish to the rest — I confess it is my misfortune 
to limp a little, but I did not conceive it to be so great, but we are not 
apt to discover our own defects. I feel the less mortified at it as it's 



natural and not a stain or defection, that resulted from my actions — I have 
pleased myself with the thoughts of serving under you, but as it is the 
general opinion that 1 am unfit for such an undertaking I shall desist — I 
feel not the less inclination to promote the good of the Company because 
I am not to be one of its members — I will do any thing that's in my power 
to procm-e the Charter, I will be at my proportion of the expense until the 
company is formed and completly equip t — Let me entreat you, Sir, if you 
have any regard for me, not to forsake the company at this crititical sea- 
son for I fear the consequences — if you mean to oblige me by it, I assure 
you it will not, I would not have the company break and disband for fifty 
Dollars — it would be a disgrace upon the county and upon the town in 
particidar. I feel more mortification than resentment — but I think it would 
have manifested a more generous temper to have given me their opinions 
in private than to make proclamation of it in publick as a capital objection, 
for nobody loves to be the subject of ridicule however true the cause — I 
purpose ro attend to-morrow if my business will permit — and as Mr. 
Greene io waiting will add no more only that I am with great truth 

Your sincere friend, 

Nathanael Greene. 

The prominent part taken by Varnum in the Colonial con- 
troversy inspired him with an ambition to enter the military 
service of his country, and v^rhen the news of the battle of Lex- 
ington reached East Greenwich, in 1775, Col. Varnum as- 
sembled the Kentish Guards, and within three hours, well 
uniformed, armed and equipped, they were on the march to 
Providence, and thence to Pawtucket, where they learned that 
the enemy had retired to Boston, and that their services were 
no longer required. The next week the General Assembly of 
Rhode Island authorized the raising of a brigade of three 
regiments of infantry, under Nathaniel Greene, then a mem- 
ber of the Assembly, as Brigadier-General, and Yarnum was 
selected as Colonel of the regiment to be raised in the counties 
of Kent and Kings, and on May 8th, 1775, he was commis- 
sioned by the Provincial General Assembly as Colonel of the 



10 

1st Regiment Rhode Island Infantry in the Brigade of Obsei^ 
vation. After the 5th of August of that year the regiment 
was known as the 12th Continental Foot, and during the year 
1776 officially designated the 9th Continental Foot. When 
this first change in name took place the officers received com- 
missions from the President of Congress, when Washington 
was appointed commander-in-chief, and their commands were 
then styled Continental troops. 

On the 8th of June, 1775, Col. Yarnum arrived with his 
regiment at Roxbury, and reported to Brig.-Gen. Greene. 
Here it was under fire during the shelling of that place on the 
17th of June, 1775, and also at Plowed Hill on August 26th. 
During the cannonade at the last-named place Adjt. Mumford 
and another member of the regiment had their heads shot off*. 

On the 23d July, the Rhode Island Brigade removed to 
Prospect Hill. Col. Varnum's regiment continued at the siege 
of Boston until the town was evacuated by the enemy, 17th 
of March, 1776. Meanwhile the terms of service of most of the 
enlisted men had expired in December, but they continued on 
duty until the 1st of January, 1776, and then almost all re- 
enlisted for another year. 

Marching from Boston on the 1st of April, 1776, the regi- 
ment went into temporary quarters at Providence, and then 
proceeded via Norwich to New London, where it embarked in 
transports for New York City, and arrived there on the 17th 
of April. 

Pursuant to general orders from Army Headquarters, New 
York, 30th April, 1776, the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island Conti- 
nental Infantry crossed the Bast River to Brooklyn on the 3rd 
of May and began to fortify the heights. 

On the 1st of June, pursuant to Brig.-Gen. Nathaniel 
Greene's orders of that date from Brooklyn Heights, five com- 
panies of Col. Varnum's regiment were stationed upon the right 



11 

in Fort Box, and the other three between that work and Fort 
Greene. 

On the 9th of June, Brig-.-Gen. Greene directed the 1st and 
2nd Rhode Island and Col. Moses Little's 12th regiment Con- 
tinental Foot (8th Mass. Infantry) of his brigade to exercise 
together four days in each week. 

On the 17th of June, Brig.-Gen. Greene assigned six com- 
panies of Col. Varnum's regiment to garrison Fort Box, which 
was near the line of the present Pacific Street, a short distance 
above Bond Street, Brooklyn, and two companies to the 
" Oblong " redoubt, which was on a jDiece of rising ground at 
the corner of the present De Kalb and Hudson Avenues, 
Brooklyn. 

On the 8th of July, the same general oJfficer ordered the 1st 
Rhode Island, Col. Yarnum, to go and garrison Fort Defiance, 
at Red Hook, Brooklyn, which in a communication to Gen. 
Washington from Headquarters, Brooklyn Heights, 5th July, 
he said he regarded as " a post of vast importance." 

Here the regiment remained during the battle of Long 
Island, on the extreme right flank of Maj.-Gen. Israel Put- 
nam's forces, engaged with the allied British and Hessian 
forces, and nearest to the enemy's ships. 

On the 30th of August, the 1st and 2nd Rhode Island hav- 
ing evacuated the lines, re-crossed the East River to the City 
of New York early in the morning. 

In the action at Harlem Heights, the regiment was an active 
participant under its Lieut.-Col. (Archibald Crary), Col. Yar- 
num being at the time on the sick report. 

Soon afterward the regiment crossed the Hudson at Fort 
Lee, and was there on the 23d of September with the remain- 
der of the brigade (Nixon's, late Greene's), which included 
the 2nd Rhode Island. From thence, on the 13th of October, 
pursuant to Brig.-Gen. John Nixon's orders of that date and 



12 

place, which he had issued in compliance with Maj.-Gen. 
Greene's instructions, the brigade immediately moved over the 
ferry to Fort Washington, and on the 16th of October was at 
East Chester, from whence, on that date, Col. Yarnum's regi- 
ment was ordered to march toward Throg's Keck, at the en- 
trance of Long Island Sound, where the British had landed on 
the 12th, and to retard their advance. Taking post at the west 
end of the causeway from Throg's Neck, with a" detachment at 
Westchester Mill, on the causeway where the bridge planks 
had been removed, the 1st Rhode Island remained here until 
the 18th, and then moved to Valentine's Hill. 

Two days later, Col. Yarnum was with his regiment at the 
battle of White Plains, and on the 1st of JS^ovember in camp at 
North Castle. On the 22nd of November, the regiment was 
quartered near Phillipsburg, and crossed the Hudson with the 
brigade on the 2nd of December, and was at Haverstraw on the 
4th of December. 

As the terms of service of the several Rhode Island Conti- 
nental regiments were drawing to a close, be here left his regi- 
ment, and was sent by his Excellency, the commander-in-chief, 
to Rhode Island, to hasten, by his influence and presence, the 
recruitment of the army. 

On the 12th of October preceding. Gen. Washington, from 
Army Headquarters, Harlem Heights, had specially recom- 
mended him for retention in the army on its proposed re-ar- 
rangement " for the war." 

He had been at home but a few days when the Rhode Island 
General Assembly appointed him on the 12th of December, 
1776, Brigadier-General of the State Militia, and also of the 
Rhode Island State Brigade on the Continental Establishment. 
He relinquished his regimental commission on acceptance of this 
last commission, and was on duty successively at Tiverton 8th, 
23rd Januai-y, and 11th to 17th March, 1777, Providence 25th 



13 

January, Warren 12th March, South Kingston 20th April, 
and Exeter 24th May, 1777. He was appointed Brigadier- 
General of the Continental Army 21st of February, 1777, and 
notified thereof by Gen. Washington in complimentary terms 
from Army Headquarters, Morristown, N. J., 3rd of March, 
1777. Gen. Washington's letter contains ample evidence that 
his military record and bearing had met with the full approba- 
tion of the distinguished commander-in-chief. This new ap- 
pointment vacated that under which he was then acting, and 
the Rhode Island General Assembly at the March session, 1777, 
passed a resolution on the subject " in grateful remembrance 
of his services." 

Using his personal infl.uence, which was great, to hasten re- 
enlistment and the recruitment of the 1st and 2nd Khode 
Island Continentals, after their return in February from Mor- 
ristown, N. J., he was enabled on the 8th of April to send for- 
ward to that place to join the " main " army a detachment from 
each, under Lieut.-Col. Jeremiah Olney. Under Gen. Wash- 
ington's instructions from Army Headquarters at the last- 
named place, of the 11th of May, the two regiments when they 
did leave Rhode Island were directed to march to Peekskill, in 
the Middle Department, then under Maj.-Gen. Israel Putnam. 
They arrived there on or about the 23rd of May, and were at 
first quartered in Peekskill. Brig.-Gen. Varnum personally 
arrived about the 1st of June. On the 12th of June, Gen. 
Washington, in consequence of a movement of the enemy, di- 
rected from Army Headquarters, Middlebrook, Maj.-Gen. Put- 
nam to forward to that place a portion of his forces. This 
detachment included Yarnum's Brigade. While with the 
" main army " his brigade, on the .22nd of June, 1777, formed 
part of the forces detached under Maj.-Gen. Nathaniel Greene 
to make a demonstration against the enemy in ]S"ew Brunswick. 
In this successful movement against Sir William Howe, Var- 



14 

num's Brigade marched down on the west side of the Raritan 
and followed the retreating enemy several miles toward Amboy. 
On the 1st of July, the brigade was ordered back by his Ex- 
cellency, the commander-in-chief, and on the 2nd of July 
marched from Middlebrook. 

The 1st Rhode Island was then sent to Maj.-Gen. Putnam to 
garrison Fort Montgomery. 

On the 20th of August, pursuant to the latter's orders from 
Department Headquarters, Peekskill, Brig.-Gen. Varnum left 
that place on special service with a detachment to White 
Plains, from whence the 2nd Rhode Island went nearly to 
King's Bridge, in the "neutral ground" of Westchester 
County. 

The expedition was successful, and incidentally captured two 
subalterns and several enlisted men of the enemy. 

It returned to Peekskill on the 26th. , 

On the 23d September, General Washington, from Army 
Headquarters in camp near Pottsgrove, Pa., instructed Maj.- 
Gen. Putnam to send a certain detachment of troops to him 
without delay, via Morristown. 

Accordingly the 4th Regt. Conn. Cont'l Inf'y (Col. John 
Durkee) and the 8th Regt. Conn. Cont'l Inf'y (Col. John 
Chandler) were added to Brig.-Gen. Yarnum's brigade, and it 
again crossed the Hudson River. It arrived at Caryell's Ferry 
on the Delaware on the 7th October, and here he was directed 
to halt, and by orders of the 7th October to detach the 1st and 
2d Rhode Island to Fort Mercer. Soon afterwards, he moved 
to Woodbury, N. J., where Brigade Headquarters were estab- 
lished. 

On the 1st Nov., 1777, Gen. Washington, from Army Head- 
quarters Whitemarsh, directed him to take supervision of Fort 
Mercer, Red Bank, and of Fort Mifflin, Mud Island, and relieve 
Lt.-Col. Samuel Smith, 4th Maryland Cont'l Inf'y, the com- 



15 

maiidment of Fort Mifflin, who had requested to be relieved on 
the 18th October. 

However, in prospect of an attack, Lt.-Col. Smith was con- 
tinued in command, and exercised it on the 10 JSTov. when the 
firing was resumed, until the afternoon of the 11th, when he 
was severely wounded in the arm and left the fort. Brig.-Gen. 
Yarnum, then at Fort Mercer, immediately detailed Lieut.-Col. 
Giles Kussell, 8th Conn., who went over and assumed command, 
and relieved part of the garrison by a detachment from his own, 
the 4th Conn. (Col. John Durkee's). 

On the 12th, Lieut.-Col. Russell, ill and exhausted by fatigue, 
asked to be relieved, and while Brig.-Gen. Varnum was con- 
sidering what field ofiicer to detail to the hazardous duty, Maj. 
Simeon Thayer, 2d Rhode Island, volunteered, and went over 
and relieved Lieut.-Col. Russell and the remainder of Lieut.- 
Col. Smith's men with a detachment of Rhode Islanders. 

As the land defences of the Delaware had been entrusted by 
Gen. Washington to Brig.-Gen. Varnum, the anxiety of the 
latter to fulfil his whole duty with the inadequate force under 
him was extreme. 

During the bombardment of Fort Mifflin and its heroic de- 
fence on the 15th Nov., 1777, he reported to Gen. Washington 
at 6 P.M., as follows : " We have lost a great many men to-day; 
a great many officers are killed and wounded. My fine com- 
pany of artillery is almost destroyed. We shall be obliged to 
evacuate the fort this night." 

After the two forts were evacuated he marched his brigade, 
20th November, to Mount Holly and joined Maj.-Gen. Greene's 
division there a few days later. 

Having crossed the Delaware, his brigade joined the main 
army at Whitemarsh about the 29th Nov., and was in the 
operations in that vicinity against Sir William Howe's army, 
5th-8th December. 



16 

Proceeding with his brigade to Valley Forge on the 19th 
Dec., it there erected huts and went into winter quarters.* 
The brigade of General Varnum was stationed on a hill where 
a star redoubt was erected, whence an extensive view of both 
sides of the Schuylkill River could be secured, and so near the 
steam as to be able to employ the artillery to check any attempt 
of the enemy to cross over near the place, but their use for that 
purpose was never required. The redoubt was about 1^ miles 
from Washington's headquarters; and just within the lines and 
a short distance beyond were the headquarters of General 
Varnum, at the residence of David Stevens, the next farm 
house below that occupied by Washington. This house is still 
standing, and has recently been described, as follows : " The 
house is of stone with a long porch facing the road, and is quite 
remarkable for the thickness of the western wall — about 12 
feet. The ceilings are low, and there is a general appearance 
of comfort surrounding it. The main room has still the large 
old open fire place. It is situate close to the River road, and 
about three hundred feet from the ruins of the Star Redoubt, 
which was the strongest of the works at Valley Forge, com- 
manding the road and the river for miles, and was doubtless 
the key to the situation."t 

The trials, sufferings and privations of the Continental Army 
at Valley Forge are too well known to all students of history 
to require any extended allusion thereto, and the same may be 
said as to the bitter attacks and cabals against General Wash- 
ington at this time, but the following extracts from letters of 
General Varnum may be of interest. On December 22d, 1777, 
he wrote to General Washington, as follows: 

* History of Valley Forge, by Henry Woodman (collection of Penn. Hist. Society). Also 
John F. Watrous' memo, in same collection. 

t J. V. P. Turner, Esq., of Philadelphia, in Newport Mercury, Dec. 2l8t, 1895 ; and in 
•personal correspondence with the Editors, 1902. 



17 

" According to the saying of Solomon, hunger will break through a stone 
wall. It is therefore a very pleasing circumstance to the Division under 
my command that there is probability of their marching. Three days suc- 
cessively have we been destitute of bread. Two days we have been en- 
tirely without meat. The men must be supplied or they cannot be com- 
manded. The complaints are too urgent to pass unnoticed. It is with 
pain that I mention this distress. I know that it will make your Excel- 
lency unhappy ; but if you expect the exertion of virtuous principle while 
your troops are deprived of the necessaries of life, your final disappoint- 
ment will be great in proportion to the patience which now astonishes every 
man of human feeling."* 

In a letter to his life long friend, General Nathaniel Greene, 
dated Yalley Forge, Feb. 1st, 1778, he speaks of General 
Washington, as follows: 

"I know the great General in this as in all his other measures, acts from 
goodness of soul and with a view only to the public weal. * * * You 
have often heard me say, and, I assure you, I feel happy in the truth of 
it, that next to God Almighty, and my country, I revere General Wash- 
ington, and nothing fills me with so much indignation as the villany of 
some who dare speak disrespectfully of him." 

On February 16, 1778, General Yarnum wrote another letter 
from camp to General Greene, as follows: 

" The situation of the camp is such that in all human probability the 
army must soon dissolve. Many of the troops are destitute of meat and 
are several days in arrear. The horses are dying for want of forage. The 
country in the vicinity of the camp is exhausted. * * * * My freedom 
upon this occasion may be offensive ; if so I should be unhappy, but duty 
compels me to speak without reserve. "f 

General Varnum was the first person in the country to ad- 
vocate the enlistment of negroes as soldiers, and thus to recog-^ 

* Ford's Washington, vol. 6, page 254. 
f Ford's Washington, vol. 6, page 381. 



18 

nize courage "behind a thatch of wool." On January 2d, 1778, 
in view of the difficulty of obtaining sufficient troops for the 
Continental Army, he suggested to General Washington the 
propriety of raising a battalion of negroes to make up the pro- 
portion of Khode Island in the army. Washington submitted 
this suggestion to the executive of Rhode Island without ap- 
proval or disapproval. The Rhode Island Legislature, how- 
ever, promptly passed an act authorizing the enlistment in two 
battalions of negroes and Indians; every slave enlisting to re- 
ceive his freedom, and his owner to be paid by the State an 
amount not exceeding £125. At least one battalion was suc- 
cessfully raised, and did excellent service at the battle of Rhode 
Island.* 

General Yarnum seems to have been one of the most aggres- 
sive and strenuous of the general officers of the army in pre- 
senting, not only to the Commander-in-Chief, but also to the 
State of Rhode Island and to Congress, the sufferings and 
needs of the Continental troops at Yalley Forge, and in de- 
manding some immediate relief for them, and doubtless this 
aggressiveness and insistence led him naturally to incur the 
hostility of some active members of the general government, 
for on May 23d, 1778, Governeur Morris, then a member of 
Congress from New York, writes to Washington concerning 
Yarnum that his " temper and manners are by no means calcu- 
lated to teach Patience, Discipline and Subordination." f 

Dr. William Shaw Bowen says of Yarnum : 

"His talents for the conduct of business affairs were very great, and his 
manners were so engaging that Varnum was called on by Washington to 
conduct delicate negotiations for the Continental as well as for the State 
Government. Washington placed a high estimate on him." 

" The solemn visage of the father of his country must have relaxed when 

* Ford's Washington, vol. 6, page 347. 
t Ford's Washington, Vol. 7, p. 30. 



19 

he referred to him as ' the light of the camp ' during the dreadful winter 
at Vallej Forge."* 

Pursuant to General Washington's orders dated Army Head- 
quarters Yalley Forge, 7th May, 1778, he was directed under 
the resolution of Congress of the 3d February preceding, to 
administer the oath of office to the officers of his own and Brig.- 
Genl. Jedediah Huntington's brigade of Connecticut Continen- 
tal Infantry. 

On the 4th March, 4th, 23d, and 29th April, 17th, 26th and 
28th of May and 4th June, he was Brigadier-General of the 
day to the " Main " Army at Yalley Forge. Soon afterward 
and before the evacuation of Philadelphia by the enemy, he 
went on special duty to Rhode Island. Here his brigade joined 
him near Providence on the 3d August, 1778, preparatory to 
the campaign before Newport. It now consisted, under Gen- 
eral orders dated Army Hd. Qrs. Wright's Mills, 22d July, 
1778, of the 2d R. I. Contl. Infantry (Col. Israel Angell), 
Colonels Henry Sherburne's and Saml. B. Webb's additional 
Regts. Contl. Infy. and the 1st Regt. Canadian Contl. Infy. 
(Col. James Livingston). 

On the 14th August pursuant to Genl. Orders of Maj.-Genl. 
John Sullivan dated Hd. Qrs. Portsmouth, R.I., he was assigned 
to the command of the right wing of the front line of the Army 
in Rhode Island, and by the same authority was directed to 
command the covering party in the lines at the siege of N^ew- 
port on the 16th. 

In addition to his other duties he was detailed as President 
of a General Court Martial, per Major-General Sullivan's or- 
ders, dated Hd. Qrs. before I^ewport, 17th Aug., 1778, and 
continued on this duty until the 29th August when the Court 
was dissolved. 

* Providence Journal, March 6th, 1902. [This remark was made by Washington to Cap- 
tain Samuel Packard of Providence (grandfather of Dr. Bo wen), and frequently repeated by 
Capt. Packard.] 



20 

On the 14th and 31st August he was Brigadier of the Day 
to the Army. 

In the battle of Khode Island his command bore the princi- 
pal part of the fighting against the forces of Maj.-Genl. Kobt. 
Pigot. 

In General Orders dated Hd. Qrs. Department of R. I., 
Tiverton, 31st Aug., 1778, his brigade was ordered " to take 
post at Bristol and Warren, divided as he shall think best for 
the defence of those posts." He made his Brigade Hd. Qrs. 
at Warren until 26th Feby., 1779, when he was at East Green- 
wich. Meanwhile Major-General Sullivan, during his own 
absence, by General Orders dated Hd. Qrs. Providence, 27th 
January, 1779, placed him temporarily in command of the De- 
partment of Rhode Island. 

The necessity of attending to his private affairs, and to the 
support and maintenance of his family, compelled him at this 
time much against his will to tender his resignation to Con- 
gress. In a letter to his friend, Genl. Greene, dated 26th Feby., 
1779, he says : " The resolution was painful, but hard necessity 
urged it by every cogent motive." He was honorably dis- 
charged from the service "at his own request," 5th March, 
1779. 

Upon official notification of acceptance of his resignation, 
Maj. General John Sullivan, in Genl. Orders Hd. Qrs. Depart- 
ment of Rhode Island, Providence, 18th March, 1779, said : 

" Brigadier-General Varnum having this day notified the Commander- 
in-Chief that he has transmitted a final resignation of his commission to 
Congress, and that he is under the disagreeable necessity of quitting the 
service of the United States : 

The General esteems it his duty to return his sincere and most cordial 
thanks to Brig. -Genl. Varnum for his brave, spirited and soldierlike con- 
duct while acting under his immediate command in this Department, and 
sincerely laments that an officer, who by his conduct, has merited so much 
from the public, should be under the disagi-eeable necessity of leaving a 



21 

service where his exertions as an officer would have been of essential ad- 
vantage had he been able to continue in the army." 

Appointed by the R. I. General Assembly to be Major-Gen- 
eral R. I. Militia, 5th May, 1779, he continued in this office by 
unanimous annual reappointments until the 7th May, 1788, and 
was, from the 25th July to the 8th Aug., 1780, called into the 
actual service of the United States under Lieut.-Genl. the 
Comte de Rochambeau. On the 26th Oct., 1779, he was ap- 
pointed by the Rhode Island General Assembly Advocate in 
the State Court of Admiralty. 

Upon his resignation from the army General Yarnum re- 
turned to his home at East Greenwich, completed the construc- 
tion of his dwelling and resumed the active practice of the law. 

As to this house of General Varnum's, which is still stand- 
ing (1906), and in excellent preservation, although more than 
a century and a quarter old, we have an interesting description 
in an article written by its present owner and occupant, Dr. 
William Shaw Bowen, which was published in the Providence 
Journal of March 6th, 1892, from which we quote as follows : 

" Of the pre-revolutionary mansions there are few better specimens in 
existence than the Varnum place in East Greenwich. The venerable 
edifice has been shielded from the approaches of the iconoclastic * restorer,' 
and today, in its interior, it is one of the most perfect of the remaining 
instances of colonial architecture the country affords. In its way it is as 
unique as the Braddock house at Alexandria, Va., the Chancellor Wythe 
mansion at Williamsburg, or the Brandon place on the James River near 
Richmond. Varnum house is not only rich in the perfect details of its 
kind, but it teems with historic interest. Few houses in Rhode Island are 
more replete with associations of the last days of her colonial history and 
the early period of independent existence, the hiatus between the date of 
the separation from English rule and that of the final union with the 
established States of the American Union. 



22 

The present owner cherishes the home of the brilliant and versatile 
Varnum, and takes pride in preserving the old place in its original style. 
The hall, which closely resembles that of the Vernon house, is wainscoted 
on the first and second floors, as are nearly all of the rooms. The wood- 
work of the parlor is greatly admired by architects. The heavy cornice 
is dentated and the pediment above the fireplace is peculiarly graceful in 
its effect. The doors have small, oval, fluted brass knobs. All of the 
rooms have open fireplaces with tile facings. The fireplace of the dining 
room is seven feet in width and constructed of cut granite. The rooms 
are filled with antique black mahogany furniture, mostly of the Georgian 
age. The parlor set was brought from England in the last century." 

In the same article we find a picturesque and attractive ac- 
count of a visit paid by the Marquis de Lafayette and a party 
of French ofiicers in September, 1778, to General Varnum at 
his East Greenwich home. It reads as follows : 

" On a warm afternoon in September, in the year 1778, a small sloop 
rounded 'the rocks,' which jut out into Coweset Bay from the estate now 
occupied as a summer residence by William Stoddard, Esq., of Providence. 
The fresh southerly breeze which prevails a considerable portion of the 
year wafted the craft to Long Point, which limits the little Greenwich 
cove. Then the sloop made a few tacks, and was speedily tied alongside 
the wharf at the foot of King Street. The loungers on shore, attracted 
by the new arrival, beheld a gallant spectacle on the sloop's deck. There 
was a handsome young man clad in the buff and blue regimentals of a 
general officer in the Continental army. He was of medium height, erect 
and dignified, and his manners were those of one who is in a position to 
command men. With distinguished courtesy he assisted several unknown 
militarv gentlemen to the shore. The uniform worn by the strangers was 
unfamiliar to the barefooted youths who clustered on the caplog of the 
wharf. It consisted of a green coat faced with red and laced with gold. 
The breeches were of buff cloth. Black silk stockings, a four-cornered 
cocked hat and a large red silk sash were other features of the costume. 
One of the number was clad in the Continental blue and buff. On him 
the attention of the first mentioned officer were especially bestowed. He 
was a young man with sharp features and a prominent nose. When the 



23 

shore was reached the first officer in Continental uniform exclaimed : " My 
dear Mai'quis, welcome to East Greenwich and my home.' 

The speaker was Brigadier-General James Mitchell Varnura, who com- 
manded a brigade at the battle fought on Rhode Island on August 29th 
previous between the American army under General Sullivan and the 
British garrison at Newport. His guest was the Marquis de La Fayette, 
who was sent with two brigades of Continental troops by Washington to 
reinforce Sullivan. The failure of the French fleet to cooperate compelled 
Sullivan to evacute Rhode Island after the sanguinary contest of Butts 
Hill and Quaker Hill. The officers in green were Frenchmen. They 
came to the county seat of Kent to partake of Gen. Varnum's hospitality. 

The record of what transpired during the stay of La Fayette rests wholly 
on the reminiscences of the late Miss Eleanor Fry, a venerable Quakeress 
who lived in an ancient gambrel-roofed house on the site now occupied by 
the Central Hotel, immediately adjoining the Kent County Court House 
on the south. Miss Fry, known to the villagers as ' Cousin Ellen,' died 
many years ago. She was a beautiful woman in her youth, and a favorite 
in the courtly society of the Revolutionary period. She witnessed the 
little procession of guests led by Gen. Varnum with La Fayette at his 
side as they came along King Street, crossed Main Street and thence 
walked up the short ascent of Court Street — by the house afterwards occu- 
pied by Dr. Peter Turner of Continental army fame at the battle of Red 
Bank — to the residence of Gen. Varnum on Pearce Street. 

The imposing fagade of the house appeared exactly as at present, save 
that it was not shadowed by the two great elm trees that stand in front. 
They were then young trees recently planted. The location was, as it is 
today, the best in the village. Narragansett Bay stretched out in front 
toward Newport. Warwick Neck and distant Bristol were in view. The 
quaint old town, then consisting almost entirely of unpainted houses, the 
streets sandy and rain-washed, lay on the side hill sloping toward the 
waters of Greenwich Cove. In 1778 the Varnum mansion was isolated, 
with broad fields and meadows on either side and extending far back in the 
rear. Pearce Street contained only four houses, and was an out-of-the- 
way portion of the village. The house, resplendent with white paint, 
green blinds, and huge, shining brass knocker on the front door, was re- 
gai'ded as a palace by the townspeople, many of whom characterized it as 
' Varnum's Folly,' and as savoring of aristocratic and unrepublican pre- 
tense and display. 



24 

According to ' Cousin Ellen ' Fry the several clays that the gallant La 
Fayette and the French officers passed as the guests of Gen. Vamum were 
of unwonted gayety. Every evening tea was served, to which the village 
beauties, with their chaperons, were invited. La Fayette lodged in the 
northeast chamber. His valet slept on a cot outside the door. Gen. 
Varnum occupied the southeast chamber. The French officers were placed 
in the southwest chamber. The nights were spent in conviviality. It 
was a free living, hard drinking age, and the breakfasts were at a veiy 
late hour. 

The occasion of La Fayette's visit was chai'acterized by Gen. Varnum 
as his house-warming . It is believed that Gen. Sullivan was of the 
memorable party. 

Returning from a visit to Boston, Gen. Washington passed a night in 
Varnuni's house. He dined and supped there, and during the afternoon 
enjoyed a brief siesta in the northeast chamber. The journey westward 
was resumed the following day over the old road through Coventry, to 
Lebanon, where Washington stayed with Governor Jonathan Trumbull." 

Generals ]N^athanael Greene and John Sullivan and the 
Comte cle Kochambeau, the Commander-in-Chief of the French 
army, — under whom Gen. Yarnum served in Rhode Island, 
and between whom and Yarnum there was formed a sincere 
and lasting friendship, with sundry members of his staff, — 
were also guests at this hospitable mansion. 

Commissary General Claude Blanchard of the French army 
relates in his diary that when he dined with General Yarnum, 
at the latter's house on the 20th of August, 1780, the entire 
conversation was carried on in Latin. 

It was doubtless at or soon after the visit of the Marquis de 
Lafayette above referred to, that the latter presented to Gene- 
ral Yarnum the Punch Bowl, of which a picture appears in 
this volume, and which is now owned by the Rhode Island So- 
ciety of the Cincinnati, of which General Yarnum was subse- 
quently President. 

In April, 1780, the people of the State of Rhode Island "in 



25 

grateful recollection of his eminent services in the cause of 
public liberty, and desirous to throw into the national councils 
those distinguished talents which could be spared from the 
field," elected General Yarnum their delegate to the Confede- 
rated or Continental Congress of that year, and he was reelected 
the next year, serving from May 3d, 1780, to May 1, 1782; and 
he was subsequently reelected for the term from May 1st, 1786, 
to May 2d, 1787. 

As that body sat with closed doors, his voice could not be 
heard by the public, but his name appeared very often on the 
published journal, and it is evident that he exerted great power 
and influence. 

In 1781 he was one of the Committee appointed to apportion 
amongst the States the assessments for public expenses and 
carrying on the war, was Chairman of the Committee to whom 
was referred a report of the Board of Admiralty, embracing 
instructions to private armed vessels, was one of the Committee 
who reported a resolution which was adopted giving the thanks 
of Congress to Brigadier-General Morgan and the oflScers and 
men under his command for their fortitude and good conduct 
in the action at the Cowpens. 

In 1782 he served on many committees, and amongst others 
was Chairman of the Committee authorizing the exchange of 
Lieut.-General Burgoyne and his ofl3cers; he reported and had 
passed a resolution urging the States to send full representa- 
tions to Congress; was on Committee to express the thanks of 
Congress to Washington, Rochambeau and de Grasse after the 
victory at Yorktown; and was Chairman of the Committee to 
thank General Greene and his oflScers after the battle of Eutaw 
Springs. In 1786-7 General Yarnum also occupied similar 
important positions in Congress. 

Mr. Augustus C. Buell, in his recently published work en- 
titled " Paul Jones, founder of the American Navy " (Yol. II. 



26 

pp. 58-61) refers to General Yarnum as the Chairman of the 
Select Committee of Congress, March 28th, 1781, to investi- 
gate and report as to the conduct of Commodore John Paul 
Jones, which committee, after a protracted and searching in- 
quiry, not only exonerated the Commodore from all charges, 
but reported resolutions giving him the thanks of the United 
States for his distinguished services, which resolutions were 
unanimously passed by Congress by standing vote. 

Mr. Buell also gives interesting quotations from General 
Yarnum's own account of the proceedings of that committee.* 

It appears also that Yarnum was one of a committee ap- 
pointed by Congress to draft a proclamation which was adopted 
and issued by Congress on the 26th day of October, 1781, 
designating December 13th as a day of general thanksgiving 
and prayer, in special commemoration of the confederation of 
the States, the victories of our allies at sea, the j^rowess of our 
troojDS, and the surrender of Cornwallis and his whole army at 
Yorktown. 

Those familiar with Yarnum's writing and addresses are of 
the opinion from the style and form of the proclamation that he 
was its draughtsman. t 

The distinguished Dr. William Samuel Johnson, of Connec- 
ticut, who was in Congress with him in 1786, referring to 
General Yarnum's Congressional career, said that " he was a 
man of uncommon talents and of the most brilliant eloquence." 

In the " Memoirs of Elkanah Watson," an exceedingly rare 
book, may be found interesting details concerning Yarnum., 
The writer describes some of his characteristics : 

"I first saw this learned and amiable man in 1774, when I heard him 
deliver a Masonic oration. Until that moment I had formed no conception 

* Memorial of James Mitchell Varnum. His piiblick services, and excerpts from his diary 
of events printed for subscribers. — Providence, 1792. 

t " Proclamation for Thanksgiving issued by the Continental Congress, &c." — Munsell & 
Rowland, Albany, 1868. 



27 

of the power and charms of oratory. I was so deeply impressed that the 
effects of his splendid exhibition has remained for 48 years indelibly fixed 
on my mind. I then compared his mind to a beautiful parterre, from 
which he was enabled to pluck the most gorgeous and fanciful flowers, in 
his progress to enrich and embellish the subject." 

General Yarnum upon his retirement from the army devoted 
himself assiduously to the practice of the law, with increased 
reputation, and despite interruptions later for several years 
caused by his Congressional duties, became recognized as one 
of the leading and most brilliant men at the bar of Khode Is- 
land, and was retained in all the most important causes. 

Many great and important cases arose growing out of the 
relations of the nation to the state. One of the most notable 
of these, was the great paper money case of Trevett against 
Weeden, which stirred the community to its very foundation. 
The questions involved and their importance are fully set forth 
at considerable length in the biography of General Yarnum in 
Undyke's Memoirs of the Rhode Island Bar. It was tried in 
September, 1786. 

General Yarnum was the counsel for the successful defend- 
ant, and his argument was considered masterly and convincing. 

An attempt being afterwards made to impeach the Justices 
of the Supreme Court for their decision in the above case. 
General Yarnum appeared for the judges, and his argument is 
described as having been "copious, argumentative and elo- 
quent," and the attempt at impeachment fell through. 

Mr. Updyke says, " It was eulogium enough on Yarnum 
that the power of those speeches wrought such a triumphant 
victory over public opinion, that the dominant party, to save 
themselves from political prostration, were compelled to repeal 
their arbitrary acts within sixty days after their passage." 

In another celebrated case in which Yarnum took part, we 
have fortunately handed down to us a vivid description of the 



28 

personality of the leading counsel, Hon. William Samuel John- 
son, of Connecticut, and General Yarnum. 

It was the fashion of the bar of that day to be very well or 
elegantly dressed, and after describing Dr. Johnson's appear- 
ance, and his dress of black silk cut velvet, Mr. Updyke then 
describes the opposing counsel : 

" Gen . Varnum appeared with his brick-colored coat, trimmed with gold 
lace, buckskin and small clothes, with gold lace knee bands, silk stockings 
and boots (Gen. Barton and himself being the only gentlemen who wore 
boots all day at that period), with a high, delicate and white forehead, 
with a cowlick on the right side ; eyes prominent and of a dark hue. His 
complexion was rather florid — somewhat corpulent, well proportioned and 
finely formed for strength and agility ; large eyebrows, nose straight and 
rather broad, teeth perfectly white, a profuse head of hair, short on the 
forehead, turned up some and deeply powdered and clubbed. When he 
took off his cocked hat he would lightly brush up his hair forward, while 
with a fascinating smile lighting up his countenance he took his seat in 
court opposite his opponent." 

Mr. Wilkins Updyke in a personal letter to Hon. Benjamin 
F. Yarnum (in the possession of his son John M. Yarnum), 
dated in 1839, says : 

" My eldest brother Daniel studied under General Varnum in 1784, 
and I have always been an ardent admirer of the character of the Gene- 
ral * * * General Varnum was one of the most eloquent men that 
this or any other country ever produced. All the aged bear testimony 
unanimously as to his wonderful oratorical powers, and he was beloved by 
everybody. No one thought himself safe in a trial without him." 

General Yarnum became an original member of the Society 
of the Cincinnati on December 17, 1783, and was the first Yice 
President of the Rhode Island branch of that distinguished 
military order, and after the death of General Nathaniel Greene, 
succeeded the latter as President, a position which he retained 
until his death. He presided for the last time at the annual 



29 

meeting held in the State House at Providence on the 4th 
July, 1787. 

General Yarnum was a warm and unwavering advocate for 
a federal constitution ; he knew the inefficiency of the confed- 
eration, and the selfish considerations that governed the States, 
and felt that unless an instrument cementing the Union was 
speedily adopted, future efforts would be unavailing. 

The following letter, dated August 24th, 1787, from him to 
Hon. Mr. Holton, — (probably Hon. Samuel Holton, a promi- 
nent member of Congress from Massachusetts) — gives General 
Yarnum's views as to the proper form for a constitution. It 
will be noticed that the Constitution, as finally adopted after 
his death, followed substantially the lines suggested by him in 
this letter : * 

" My worthy friend : 

You have several times hinted the difficulty of expressing upon paper, 
ones ideas of an energetic federal government, altho' convinced of the in- 
adequacy of our present system. Permit me to devote fifteen minutes to 
this subject ; and, as detail or amplification is unnecessary to an informed 
mind, I shall confine myself to principles. 

These principles may be considered under two heads. The first as orig- 
inating from the confederacy and directing the various powers that should 
be exercised by the nation collectively, and by the States individually. 

The second, as flowing from the nature of civil Society having due re- 
gard to the customs, manners, laws, climates, religions, and pursuits of 
the citizens of the United States. Under this head may be considered 
the manner of exercising these powers, or the formal government of the 
Nation. 

In the first place, whatever respect the citizens collectively, or as imme- 
diately relating to the whole confederacy, whether foreign or domestic, 
must be subjected to the national controul & whatever respects the citi- 
zens of a particular State, & has relation to them as such should be direc- 
ted by the States respectively. But as interferences may sometimes arise 

♦ This original letter is now in possession of Gen, James M. Varnum of New York. 



30 

the collective power must decide and enforce. This check would be better 
placed in the judiciary than the legislative branches. 

In the second place, The Government of the United States should be so 
modified as to secure the rights of the different classes of citizens. But as 
these are distinguished by education, wealth & talents, they naturally di- 
vide into Aristocratical and Democratical. It is necessary then to form a 
Supreme legislative, perhaps as Congress is now formed, to originate all 
national laws, and submit them to the revision of a Senatorial body, which 
shall be formed out of equal districts of the United States, by the appoint- 
ment of the Supreme legislative & whose commissions shall be so modified 
as to retain an equal number of old Members in office with the new, who 
may form a succession. In this body should reside the power of making 
war and peace. 

The execution of the laws, both civil and military, should be placed in 
an executive council, consisting of a President of the United States, and 
the Officers of the great departments of War, Finance, Foreign Affairs, 
and Law, to be appointed by the Senate, & commissioned during good 
behavior, excepting the President, who should be appointed by both the 
legislative and senatorial bodies, & commissioned for a term of years, or 
for life. All appointments of Judges & other officers civil and military, 
should be made by the President, by and with advice of the council & 
commissioned in his name. These officers should be accountable for their 
conduct and triable before the respective tribunals before whom their actions 
would respectively be made cognizable. I think the President should not 
be liable to any direct prosecution as in him would reside that part of the 
sovereignty which displays itself in the etiquette of nations. 

In this system, the balance would be secured, Military objects would be 
directed by the Senate, executed by the President and Council & checked 
by the fiscal power of the legislative. 

The objects of revenue should be few, simple and well defined, & in 
case of very uncommon emergency, the States respectively should be 
called upon from contingents, which would form an ultimate and never 
failing check against encroachments upon the political system. 

August 4th, 1787. 

I am Sir, Yrs. 

J. M. Varnum. 
Hon'ble Mr. Holton." 



.31 

It would have been well if General Yarnum could have been 
content to remain at his own comfortable home, with a wife 
whom he loved and cherished, in a state where he was at once 
a leader of the bar, and universally loved and respected and 
where all we're proud to do him honor. But as a matter of 
fact, his health had become considerably impaired, and he had 
a tendency to weakness of the lungs, and the exposure of army 
life had implanted the seeds of pulmonary consumption in his 
system, which were aggravated by his constant laborious and 
strenuous work in his professional aud in public affairs. 

Yarnum's judicial mind and public services, both in the army 
and Congress, had given him a reputation which extended 
throughout the whole country, aud hence when the " North- 
west Territory," a pet scheme of President Washington's, was 
formed (which included all the territory northwest of the Ohio) 
in 1787, Yarnum was chosen as one of the Directors of the 
" Ohio Company of Associates " on August 29th, 1787 ; and 
on the 14th of October following, when General Arthur St. 
Clair was designated as Governor, General Yarnum was ap- 
pointed one of the United States Judges for that Territory, a 
position he accepted. 

Accompanied only by Griffen Greene of Coventry, E,. I., 
Yarnum left his home in Rhode Island in the Spring of 1788, 
via Baltimore, and journeyed on horseback through the forests 
to Marietta, a town site selected by the New England Land 
Company at the junction of the Ohio and the Muskingum rivers. 
It is known that Yarnum invested considerable money in the 
enterprise. The plans outlined partook of the methods of the 
speculative town boomers of the present age. The name finally 
selected was that of Queen Marie Antoinette, but the Roman 
classics were drawn upon in providing a Campus Martins, a 
via Sacra and a Capitolenum for the infant town. Malaria was 
prevalent and the location was a poor one in all respects. 



32 

He arrived at Marietta, Ohio, on June 5th, 1788, and at a 
celebration there on the 4th of July, was the orator of the day. 
Judge Yarnum's oration was highly commended by all who 
heard it, and was subsequently published by the Directors of 
the Ohio Company, (Augt., 1788) copies of which are still 
extant, but extremely rare. 

On the second day of July following, there being a quorum 
present (Generals Parsons, Yarnum and Putnam), the Direc- 
tors of the Ohio Company held their first meeting at Marietta, 
at which meeting, amongst other business transacted, was the 
change of the name of the city from Adelphia to Marietta.* 

A grand celebration of the national holiday took place at 
Marietta on the fourth of July, 1788. 

It is described as follows by Mr. Charles S. Hall in his inter- 
esting life of General Parsons : * 

" There was a procession of the citizens and soldiery and a public dinner 
which was spread under a long bower built of intertwined oak and maple 
boughs near the North Point at the mouth of the Muskingum. The 
wealth of the rivers and forests was drawn upon to enrich the feast. 
Amongst the delicacies served was a pike weighing one hundred pounds. 
Patriotic toasts were given and an eloquent oration delivered by Judge 
Varnum. 

Lamenting the absence of his Excellency Governor St. Clair 'upon this 
joyous occasion,' with uplifted hands he prays ' may he soon arrive,' and then 
turning first towards one and then towards the other, he thus apostrophizes 
the all unconscious rivers flowing on either side : ' Thou gentle flowing 
Ohio, whose surface as conscious of thy unequalled majesty, reflecteth no 
images but the grandeur of the impending heaven, bear him, oh ! bear him 
safely to this anxious spot ! And thou beautifully transparent Muskin- 
gum, swell at the moment of his approach, and reflect no objects but of 
pleasure and delight." 

Thus in the fertile soil of Ohio, by a Rhode Island man, the first seeds 
of western eloquence were sown." 

* Life and letters of Gen. S. H, Parsons, by C. S. Hall, Binghamton, N. Y., 1905'6. 



33 

One hundred and seven years later, on November 29th, 1905, a hand- 
some bronze tablet was unveiled in the city of New York " to commemo- 
rate the great ordinance of 1787 establishing the Northwest Territory, 
and the sale of land to the Ohio Company of Associates." 

The tablet is affixed to the portico of the United States Sub-Treasury 
in Wall Street, the site of Federal Hall, where the Congress met which 
enacted that ordinance. Upon it is an appropriate inscription, and in 
prominent letters also appear the following : 

^^ Directors of the Ohio Comj)any, 1787 : 

General Rufiis Putnam Rev. Manasseh Cutler 

General Samuel Holden Parsons General James Mitchell Varnum 

Major Winthrop Sargent, Secretary Colonel Richard Piatt, Treasurer." 

From the American Pioneer, Cincinnati, 1842, p. 64, we cull 
the following account of the opening of the United States 
Court for the Northwestern Territory : 

"The first court held northwest of the Ohio River under the forms 
of court jurisprudence was opened at Campus Martins, Marietta, Septem- 
ber 2d, 1788." * * * 

On the preceding 7th of April, General Kufus Putnam, with 
forty-seven men, had landed and made the first permanent set- 
tlement, in what is now the State of Ohio. General Harmar 
with his regulars occupied Fort Harmar. Governor St. Clair 
and Generals Parsons and Yarnum, Judges of the Supreme 
Court, arrived in July. 

From a manuscript written by an eye witness, we have the 
following account of the ceremonies on this first opening of 
court : 

" The procession was formed at the Point (where most of the settlers 
resided) in the following order : 

Ist The High Sheriff, with his drawn sword, 
2d The citizens. 



34 

3d The officers of the Garrison of Fort Harmar. 
4th The members of the Bar. 

5th The Supreme Judges (Generals Varnum and Parsons). 
6th The Governor and clergyman. 

7th The newly appointed Judges of the Court of Common Pleas 
(Generals Rufus Putnam and Benjamin Tupper). 

They marched up a path that had been cut and cleared through the 
forest to Campus Martius Hall (stockade) where the whole countermarched 
and the Judges took their seats. 

After a blessing by the Rev. Dr. Cutler, the Sheriff Col. Ebenezer 
Sproat proclaimed with his solemn " Oyez " the opening of a court for 
the administration of even handed justice. 

Although this scene was exhibited thus early in the settlement of the 
state, few ever equalled it in the dignity and the exalted character of prin- 
cipal participation. Many of them belong to the history of our country 
in the darkest as well as the most splendid periods of the Revolutionary 
War. To witness this spectacle, a large body of Indians was collected 
from the most powerful tribes, then occupying the almost entire west." 

We learn from anotlier source that the Indians were specially 
impressed by the commanding aspect and the piercing eyes of 
the High Sheriff, Colonel Sproat, and that they gave him the 
name of Hetuck, or " Buck-eye," from whence is derived the 
cognomen by which the state of Ohio and its residents have 
since become generally known. 

Judge Yarnum assisted Governor St. Clair and Judge Par- 
sons in framing a code of laws for the territory, but this was 
his last official act, as his health which had been constantly 
declining since he left home rapidly became worse, and it be- 
came evident to all that the end was not far off. 

It was about this time that Judge Yarnum, who was sup- 
posed by many of his acquaintances to be if not an agnostic at 
least devoid of deep religious convictions, wrote the following 
touching and beautiful letter to his wife : 



35 

"Marietta, 18th December, 1788. 
My dearest and most amiable friend : 

I now write you from my sick chamber, and perhaps it will be the last 
letter that you will receive from me. My lungs are so far affected, that 
it is impossible for me to recover but by exchange of air and a warmer 
plimate. I expect to leave this place on Sunday or Monday next for the 
falls of the Ohio. If I feel myself mend by the tour, I shall go no farther, 
but if not, and my strength should continue, I expect to proceed to New 
Orleans, and from thence to the West Indies & to Rhode Island. My phy- 
sicians, most of them think the chances of recovery in my favor ; however, 
I am neither elevated nor depressed by the force of opinion ; but shall 
meet my fate with humility and fortitude. 

I cannot however but indulge the hope, that I shall again embrace my 
lovely friend in this world, and that we may glide smoothly down the tide 
of time for a few years, and enjoy together the more substantial happiness 
and satisfaction as we have had already the desirable pleasures of life. 

It is now almost nineteen years since Heaven connected us by the ten- 
derest and the most sacred ties, and it is the same length of time that our 
friendship has been increased by every rational and endearing motive ; it 
is now stronger than death, and I am firmly persuaded will follow us into 
an existence of never ending felicity. 

But my lovely friend the gloomy moment will arrive when we must 
part; and should it arrive during our present separation, my last and only 
reluctant thoughts will be employed about my dearest Martha. Life, my 
dearest friend, is but a bubble, it soon bursts, and is remitted to eternity. 
When we look back to the earliest recollections of our youthful hours, it 
seems but the last period of our rest, and we appear to emerge from a 
night of slumbers to look forward to real existence. When we look for- 
ward time appears as indeterminate as eternity, and we have no idea of 
its termination but by the period of our dissolution. What particular relation 
it bears to a future state, our general notions of religion cannot point, we 
feel some things constantly active within us, that is evidently beyond the 
reach of mortality, but whether it is a part of ourselves, or] an emanation 
from the pure source of existence or reabsorbed when death shall have 
finished his work, human wisdom cannot determine. Whether the demo- 
lition of the body introduces only a change in the manner of our being, or 
leaves it to progress infinitely, alternately elevated and depressed accord- 



36 

ing to the propriety of our conduct, or whether we return to the common 
mass of unthinking matter, philosophy hesitates to decide. 

1 know therefore but one source from whence can be derived complete 
consolation in a dying hour, and that is the Divine system contained in 
the Gospel of Jesus Christ. There, life and immortality are brought to 
light ; there, we are taught our existence is to be eternal. And secure in 
an interest in the atoning merits of a bleeding Saviour, that we shall be 
inconceivably happy. A firm and unshaken faith in this doctrine must 
raise us above the doubts and fears that hang upon every other system, and 
enable us to view with a calm serenity the approach of the King of Terrors, 
and to behold him as a kind and indulgent friend, spending his shafts only 
to carry us the sooner to our everlasting home. But should there be a 
more extensive religion beyond the veil, and without the reach of mortal 
observation, the Christian religion is by no means shaken thereby, and it 
is not opposed to any principle that admits of the perfect benevolence of 
deity. My only doubt is, whether the punishment threatened in the N^ew 
Testament is annexed to a state of unbelief which may be removed here- 
after, and so restoration take place, or whether the state of the mind at 
death irretrievably fixes its doom forever. I hope and pray that the divine 
spirit will give me such assurance of an acceptance with God, through the 
merits and sufferings of his Son, as to brighten the way to immediate hap- 
piness. 

Dry up your tears, my charming mourner, nor suffer this letter to give 
too much inquietude. Consider the facts at present as in theory, but the 
sentiments such as will apply whenever the change shall come. 

I know that humanity must and will be indulged in its keenest griefs, 
but there is no advantage in too deeply anticipating our inevitable sorrows. 
If I did not persuade myself that you would conduct with becoming pru- 
dence and fortitude, upon this occasion, my own unhappiness would be 
greatly increased, and perhaps my disorder too, but I have so much con- 
fidence in your discretion as to unbosom my inmost soul. 

You must not expect to hear from me again until the coming Spring, as 
the river will soon be shut up with ice, and there will be no communica- 
tion from below, and if in a situation for the purpose I will return as goon 
as practicable. 

Give my sincerest love to all those you hold dear. I hope to see them 
figain, and love them more than ever, Adieu, my dearest friend, Aud 



37 

while I fervently devote in one undivided prayer, our immortal souls to 
the care, forgiveness, mercy and all prevailing grace of Heaven in time 
and through eternity, I must bid you a long, long, long farewell. 

James M. Varnum." 

On the 10th day of January, 1789, General Yarniim passed 
away, at the Campus Martins at Marietta. 

His remains were interred there with great solemnity and 
respect. 

The following was the 

Order of Procession.* 
Marshals. 
Mr. Wheaton, bearing the sword and military commission of the de- 
ceased on a mourning cushion. 
Mr. Lord, bearing the civil commission on a mourning cushion. 
Mr. Mayor, with the diploma and Order of the Cincinnati on a mourn- 
ing cushion. 
Mr. Fearing, with the insignia of Masonry on a mourning cushion. 



Pall Supporters. 


Q^ 


Pall Supporters. 


Griffin Greene, 




Judge Crary, 


Judge Tupper, 


o 


Judge Parsons, 


William Sargeant, Esq. 


Q 


Judge Putnam. 


Private Mourner's. 




Private Mourners. 


Mr. Charles Greene, 




Mr. Richard Greene, 


Mr. Frederic Crary, 




Mr. Philip Greene, 


Dr. Scott, 




Dr. Tinley, . 


Deacon Story. 




Dr. Drown. 



Private Citizens. 

Thirty Indian Chiefs. 

Officers of Fort Harmer. 

Civil Officers. 

The Gentlemen of the Order of the Cincinnati. 

Freemasons. 

Mr. Clark, Mr. Stratton, Mr. Leach and Mr. Balch superintended the 

order of the procession, and the whole were preceded by Captain Zeigler 

* Providence Gazette, March 7th, 1789. 



38 

of Fort Harmer with troops and music. A very affecting oration was 
delivered on the melancholy occasion (January 13th, 1789), by Dr. Solo- 
mon Drown. 

This oration was subsequently published by the Ohio Com- 
pany. It was reprinted in " The First Settlement of the North- 
west Territory," a pamphlet published at Marietta in 1888. 

General Varnum's burial place was on a ridge northeast of 
the mound near the stockade, but his remains, with those of a 
number of other officers, were many years afterwards removed 
to Oak Grove Cemetery, where they now rest. 

We here quote again from Mr. Wilkins Updyke, who says : 

"It might have been gratifying to his vanity, but Gen. Varnum com- 
mitted an unfortunate error in accepting the office to which he was ap- 
pointed. He had impaired his constitution by a free and liberal life, and 
with an enfeebled physical system, to leave his family, his circle of friends, 
and the comforts of an old State, and a delightful mansion erected in ac- 
cordance to his own taste, and ornamented to his fancy, to become a kind 
of pioneer in a new and unsettled country, among strangers, and in a so- 
ciety uncongenial to his habits, was delusive — fatally delusive. 

Professional pursuits, in our populous cities, are both more reputable 
and profitable than any of our national appointments. Yet the over-pow- 
ering charm of being predistinguished from among the people as capable, 
or being selected from among our associates as entitled to public honor, is 
too alluring to individual vanity. But the abandonment of our country, 
our firesides, and the endearing connections of home, is a sacrifice too dear 
for it all. And so the unfortunate Varnum found it, on horseback, and 
attended by a solitary companion (Griffin Greene), he left a country that 
honored him, and an idolizing people, and traversed eight hundred miles 
of wilderness, mostly devoid of the comforts of life. And at his journey's 
end was tabernacled in a rude stockade, surrounded by excitements, his 
disorders aggravated for the want of retirement and repose, breathing the 
deadly exhalations of a great and sluggish river, and protected, by military 
array, from the incursions of the western savage. The issue proved he 
had no chance for life, and with a constitution too much impaired to return, 
he there lingered and expired." 



39 

Mr. Updyke concludes with the following epitome of General 
Varnum's career : 

"The career of Gen. Varnura was active, but brief. He graduated at 
twenty, was admitted to the bar at twenty^two, entered the army at Uventy- 
•seven, resigned his commission at thirty-one, was member of Congress 
the same year, resumed his practice at thirty-three, continued his practice 
four years, was elected to Congress again at thirty-seven, emigrated to 
the West at thirty-nine, and died at the early age o^ forty. From the 
time of his admission to the bar to his departure from the state was seven- 
teen years ; deducting the four years he was in the military service, and 
three years he was in Congress, his actual professional life was only ten 
years." 

vr w TT w 

A century has passed since General Yarnum delivered at 
Marietta the first oration ever delivered in this country in the 
territory northwest of the Ohio. 

Once again, and on the seventh day of April, 1888, there is 
a celebration at Marietta, now in the great and flourishing state 
of Ohio, on the occasion of the centennial anniversary of the 
founding of the great Northwest. And again in an oration 
delivered, the orator of the day is the Honorable George Frisbie 
Hoar, a distinguished Senator of the United States from the 
state of Massachusetts, and his oration* is a magnificent tribute 
from posterity after the lapse of one hundred years, to the pi- 
oneers of 1788, and incidentally to the subject of this biograph- 
ical sketch. We quote therefrom as follows : 

" I do not believe the same number of persons fitted for the highest du- 
ties and responsibilities of war and peace could ever have been found in a 
community of the same size as were among the men who founded Marietta 
in the Spring of 1788. # * * 

'I knew them all,' cried Lafayette, when the list of nearly fifty military 
officers who were among the pioneers was read to him at Marietta in 1825. 
^ I knew them all. I saw them at Brandy wine, Yorktown and Rhode Is- 
land. They were the bravest of the brave.' 

* Published by Charles Hamilton, Worcester, Mass., 1895. 6th edition. 



40 

Washington and Varnura, as well as Carrlngton and Lafayette, dwell 
chiefly, as was Washington's fashion, upon the personal quality of the 
men and not upon their public offices or titles. Indeed to be named with 
such commendation, upon personal knowledge, by the cautious and consci- 
entious Washington, was to a veteran soldier better than being knighted 
on the field of battle. 



Your hearts are full of their memories. The stately figures of illustri- 
ous warriors and statesmen, the forms of sweet and comely matrons, living 
and real as if you had seen them yesterday, rise before us now," and 
amongst them " Varnum, than whom a courtlier figure never entered the 
presence of a queen — soldier, statesman, scholar, orator — of whom 
Thomas Paine, no mean judge, who had heard all the greatest English 
orators in tlie greatest days of English eloquence, declared the most elo- 
quent man he had ever heard speak." 



Notes to the foregoing biography of General James M. Vamum. 

His Military and Civll Commissions. 
The only one of these commissions now known to be in existence is 
that issued to him by William Greene, Governor, Captain General and 
Commander in Chief of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Planta- 
tion, as Major General of the State of Rhode Island, which bears date 
May 10th, 1779. It was under and by virtue of this commission that 
Varnum, although no longer in the Continental Army, acted in coopera- 
tion with the Comte de Rochambeau and his force in Rhode Island, during 
the later years of the war of the Revolution. This commission is now in 
the possession of General James M. Varnum of New York, the namesake 
and kinsman of the officer to whom it was issued. 

His Sword. 
One of his swords is still in existence, and in excellent preservation. 
It is the same shown in the portrait of General Varnum, a copy of which 
appears in this volume. 



41 

His Will and Estate. 

General Varnum by his will dated October 28, 1782, gave all his estate 
to his wife. 

The will was admitted to probate at East Greenwich, May 30th, 1789, 
and his father in law Crorael Child was appointed his administrator. 

The inventory shows that his personal estate was small — less than £300. 

Books of Reference. 
Memoirs of the Rhode Island Bar, by Wilkins Updyke, Providence. 

(Contains a long and interesting Biography.) 
Register of the Society of the Cincinnati in Rhode Isla^id, by Asa 

Bird Gardiner. (In press.) 
General James 31. Varnum of the Contineyital Army, by Asa Bird 

Gardiner (James M. Varnum collaborating). " Magazine of American 

History," Sept., 1887. 

The case of Trevett against Weeden, by James M. Varnum, Esq., 
Major-General of the State of Rhode Island, &c., Counsellor at law and 
Member of Congress for said State. Providence — Printed by John 
Carter, 1787. (Copy in possession of James M. Varnum of New 
York.) 

Oration, delivered at Marietta, July 4th, 1788, by the Hon. James M. 
Varnum, Esq., one of the Judges of the Western Territory, &c. New- 
port, R, I. Printed by Peter Edes, 1788. (Copy in possession of 
James M. Varnum, of New York.) 

Oration of Dr. Solomon Drown at the funeral of General Varnum at 
Marietta on January 13th, 1789. (Original in possession of Henry 
R. Drowne, Esq., of New York.) 

Oration of Dr. Solomon Drown at Marietta, April 7th, 1789, containing 
allusion to General Varnum. Worcester, Mass. Isaiah Thomas, 
1789. 

Memorial of James Mitchel Varnum. His Pxihlich Services and 
Excerpt from his Diary of Events. Printed for subscribers. Provi- 
dence, 1792. (This book is referred to and quoted from in "Paul 
Jones, Founder of the American Navy." Mr. Buell, the editor, made 
these extracts in 1886, but the compilers of this work have been unable 
after diligent inquiry to find a copy.) 



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